Fundamental Secret
by Kate Davis
Summary: Queen Amidala has refused to acknowledge the changes in Anakin, and wants to tell him her big news - can Obi-Wan convinvce her otherwise? What will be the consequences of her decision? [Supposed to fit in with what we find out in the original movies.]
1. FS - Part I

Title: FUNDAMENTAL SECRET  
Author: Kate Davis  
Category: Drama with a hint of romance.  
Rating: G   
Archive: Please email me for permission before archiving.  
Summary: Queen Amidala has refused to notice the changes in Anakin, and has something she wants to tell him - can Obi-Wan convince her otherwise? [Supposed to be coherent with the knowledge we have of latter episodes.]  
Disclaimer: All characters are the property of George Lucus and company. This piece of fan fiction was created purely for entertainment purposes and no one made any money from it. No infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended.  
  
Author's Note: This is my first piece of Star Wars fanfiction, so constructive criticism is appreciated, but please don't be too harsh!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"But Ani I have something to tell...", she spoke to the closing door, "...you", her voice drifted off.  
  
She sunk to her knees in the soft pile of cushions. He'd stormed out and left her alone. Again. He'd been doing it all the time lately, but this time it had been so final. She curled up in a ball and let her pain slip out in the form of unbridled tears. Something in his eyes told her that he wouldn't be back.   
  
What made it so much worse was that nothing had changed between them, and yet everything was different. In the morning he'd tell her that he loved her, and that night he wouldn't come home. Or he'd wake her up in the middle of night because he couldn't sleep and storm around their bedroom before disappearing into the crisp darkness. Then he'd apologise profusely to her the next day, claiming he didn't know what had came over him. He was deeply disturbed by something - he was listless, edgy and not in control of his emotions.  
  
Amidala had know no idea how long she had lay there before her tears gradually became soft sobs. She began caressing her stomach absent-mindedly with one hand. She wanted to tell him - she had tried so many times to tell him. If only he'd talk to her like he used to. If only he'd wake her in the night not to begin an argument, but to relieve his fears. In the case of the latter, she wouldn't have minded at all. He was so caught up in his own world, that he had pushed her out of it completely, and locked the door behind him.  
  
She heard a soft rap on the door. Obviously it was someone she knew well, since they had been permitted past the guards. But she didn't feel like talking to anyone. She'd sent her handmaidens away so she could try to reconcile with Anakin, but their time alone ended how it had for the best part of the last few months, with the sound of her sorrow lost in the vast corridors of the palace.  
  
"Please go away, I want to be alone". Talking made it so difficult not to cry.  
  
"Are you sure that's the best thing for you, Dala?" His voice washed over her like the waves on Naboo's coast and it calmed her shaking heart.  
  
She got up quickly from the cushions and released the door-lock.  
"Obi-Wan", she managed before she lost the battle against her emotions, "I thought you were on Alderaan..."  
  
He drew her close and wrapped his arms around her. "I came back when I heard what was happening. Sabe told me everything. I'll only be able to get you out in the next few days. The war is closer than ever and it won't be safe here. It won't be safe anywhere."  
  
"Then Anakin must come too, I can't leave him here alone. I have to go and find him, I must tell him..."  
She tried to pull away from his strong arms, but he held her tight.  
  
"You won't find him. Try to understand what I am saying. There's a rumour throughout this region. Anakin is... deeply involved in this war. Even if you did know where he was going, they'd kill you before you got close."  
  
Amidala fell against her old friend, crying out of loneliness and desperation.   
  
"Dala", he said gently in a voice he used only for her, "you must have seen it. You must have known."  
  
She'd refused to acknowledge the signs and dismissed all the rumours as simply speculative, because of the love they'd always promised to share. Though Anakin had left her only hours before, the Anakin she loved had been gone for a long time.  
  
He walked her to the nearest seat and sat her down. Sabe had informed him already of the added complication, but he sensed she needed to tell him herself.  
  
"Obi", she said after she'd controlled the shakiness in her voice. "I'm pregnant. It's twins. I'd hoped that if I told him he'd stay here with me... but he didn't let me tell him."  
  
Obi-Wan nodded at the disclosure of this information. "Perhaps it's better if he doesn't know. We are unsure as to who he is involved with..."  
  
"I can't raise them by myself..." she said in a painful whisper. But the realisation of that fact forced her to face another. Before she could express it Obi-Wan finished the thought for her.  
  
"I don't think you can raise them at all. It will be too dangerous."  
  
"No... no..." She still hung on the fading hope that Obi-Wan was wrong. That she and her husband were just going through some problems. But she'd been losing her political power in the Republic for over a year. And she couldn't escape that horrible look in Anakin's eyes or those formidable words he had spoken when he had stormed off earlier. Like it wasn't him talking. He wasn't the boy she had liked so much, and he wasn't the man she had fallen in love with. And the person he'd become was dangerously unpredictable.  
  
She silently envisioned her future and saw the fatal pieces fall into sequence. She would let Obi-Wan help her escape. She would give birth to her children in a strange place with no comforts. In order to keep them safe from their father she would abandon her country and forego her children's right to the life they had been born into. And she would be on the run for the rest of hers.  
She looked up into Obi-Wan's face, searching for the sign of any other option. Finding nothing she touched her stomach lightly and gave a small nod in uncertain acceptance.   
  
"It's better that he doesn't know," Obi-Wan repeated, in a final attempt to convince her.  
  
But she wouldn't live long enough to discover how right he was.  
  
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COPYRIGHT September 2000 KATE DAVIS  
  
Please take a moment to give me some feedback on this fic in the review section below.  
I guarantee to review at least one of your works in return.  



	2. FS - Part II

Well I know its been months since the first part of this story was posted, but I've been so busy with exams I haven't had the time to write this piece, which connects the beginning with the end, most of which I wrote awhile ago. I'm trying to make these stories fit in with what we learn in Epsiodes 4,5 and 6. I don't particularly like this part, because it skips too much time, so please read and review and tell me how I can improve it.  
[See Part I for information and disclaimers]  
  
* * * * *  
Obi-Wan's hand clutched her wrist tightly as he pulled her through the secret corridors of the palace, towards the back exit that led to one of the landing pads.  
  
At one stage a guard marched right in front of them when they were about to dash for the exit, and Obi-Wan had closed his hand around Amidala's mouth and pulled her back in line with him until he had passed them.  
  
Finally, the decoy he had sent ahead led the guard away, while the pair slipped through the gap in the wall and began running toward a small royal ship, disguised to look like an inter-galactical freighter.  
  
Aboard the ship awaited her two most loyal handmaidens and two of their most competent and faithful pilots.  
  
They ran up the ramp and into the bowels of the ship and as soon as they were inside, it took off and Amidala had a chance to thank him.   
  
She embraced him tightly before whispering, "Thank you, Obi-Wan, you've saved my life and the lives of my children I am forever indebted to you", before she retired to her quarters to sleep through much of the journey.  
  
Obi-Wan clicked back to reality and replied to the empty room 'it is I who can never repay you, Dala."  
  
* * * * *  
  
The small ship was descending toward a beautiful planet. Their journey had taken much longer than it should have, because Obi-Wan insisted they zigzag across the galaxy and double-back where they could to hide their trail.  
  
Amidala waited with Obi-Wan at the back of the ship, dressed in the orange attire of her handmaidens.  
  
"The Empire would pay a high price for my capture. Are you sure your friend will not betray us?"  
  
"Very sure. There is no safer place to deliver your children than here, Dala. After all these years, do you doubt my loyalty?"  
  
"No, Obi. But then again, I never doubted Anakin's."  
  
Obi-Wan looked away from the Queen and though he knew she did it unwittingly, she had hurt him very deeply with that comment. It was his fault Anakin had left her. As if she knew what he was thinking, she reached for Obi-Wan's hand and squeezed it tightly.  
  
The ship touched down gently and Obi-Wan straightened up before giving Amidala a sombre smile and taking the arm of the decoy and releasing the door-lock.  
  
He led the handmaiden down the ramp, while Amidala followed behind.  
  
"Obi-Wan Kenobi?" A voice whispered from the eerie dark of night.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Follow me."  
  
The figure turned and led the quartet quickly away from the palace and through the maze of garden beds until they reached a stone statue. The woman rapped on the back, and it slid open to reveal a guard, who ushered them down the steep steps, checked that no one had followed them and slid the panel closed again.  
  
At the end of a long dark tunnel, the guard slid another section of the seamless wall, which opened to reveal an enormous bright room, full of the comforts Amidala was used to.  
  
"Obi-Wan, it's good to see you. Welcome to Alderaan."  
  
A tall and impressive-looking man strode towards them and embraced Obi-Wan. "You're late - I was beginning to get worried."  
  
Obi-Wan smiled. "Bail Organa, meet Queen Amidala."  
  
The King extended his hand to the decoy, but Amidala stepped in front of her.  
  
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you."  
  
He looked surprised then took her hand and kissed it gently.  
  
"You can stay here for as long as you need Your Highness. The only people that will know of your presence will be the two people who led you here - your guard and your midwife - and myself. You must be somewhat wary of me, but I can and will do everything to protect you and your children."  
  
"I hope that one day I can repay your kindness, King Organa."  
  
"There's no need for such formalities. Bail is fine."  
  
"Very well."  
  
* * * * *  
  
A few months later, the only people in the room to herald the arrival of the galaxy's newest prince and princess were the Queen's long-time friend who paced nervously about the room and the midwife she had grown to know as a sister.  
  
After the queen had recovered, Obi-Wan placed the two children in her arms, and all her worries melted away, even only just for a few moments. She didn't think about the fact she was a prisoner here. Or that she couldn't raise her children herself. She just held their warm bodies against hers and stroked their faces, taken in every little detail about them.  
  
The midwife excused herself and left the quartet alone.  
  
"They're beautiful, Dala. What are you going to name them?"  
  
"Leia, after a good friend I lost when I was very young. And Luke. It means light", she said simply, but both knew the significance of his name.  
  
"How soon do you want to leave?" Obi-Wan asked after a few silent minutes had passed.  
  
"Leave?"  
  
"Well you can't stay here forever. You have to go back and fight this war. I have arranged a place for each of the children on separate far-flung worlds that the Empire has no interest in. There's really no reason why they ever should."  
  
"Give me a few months."  
  
"You don't have a few months. The Empire could find you at any time. And right now if they find you they find them", he relaxed his tone a little before continuing, "in a few months you will have become too attached to them to let them go."  
  
"Oh it's too late to worry about that! I've loved them ever since I've known about them. I'm already attached to them." She looked up despairingly into Obi-Wan's face and added sadly, "We'll leave in one month."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"We're going to split up."  
  
"What? Why?" A terrified Amidala cried to comfort her three-week-old baby, while eyeing off the distance to the shuttles.  
  
"Just in case. I'll take one of them with me in one shuttle and you take the other baby with your handmaidens in the other and we'll meet up on Tatooine", Obi-Wan revealed the last few details of his plan.  
  
"Is there any other way?"  
  
"No, Dala. I am sure that the Empire is aware of your presence here. We must leave now or all this will have been for nothing."  
  
She nodded, then pulled the cloak tighter around her and her child. "Let's go."  
  
"I'll look after him, Dala. See you on Tatooine." He gently kissed her cheek and began to run towards his shuttle, and Amidala, shadowed by her guard, walked as quick as she dared towards hers.  
  
The shots came so quickly that Amidala's guard had fallen down only a few steps from the safety of the garden. Her first instinct was to turn back, but Obi-Wan was almost at his shuttle and she ran forward blindly. The were coming from everywhere now - from every conceivable angle towards her and the bundle she gripped tightly. She could see the shuttle ramp just a few metres ahead. In a moment she would safety inside…  
  
* * * * *  
  
A terrified cry escaped Obi-Wan's lips. The wave of debris from the other shuttle rolled over their ship and rocked it gently. Then there was nothing.  
  
He dropped down into the pilot's seat, layed in a course for Tatooine, and set it on autopilot.  
As soon as he allowed himself to relax, his hands shook with the shock and he felt violently ill. Amidala and her baby girl gone…   
  
A squawk from the back of the ship brought him back to the present. He walked over to the boy and picked him up in his arms. He looked so much like his father… it must have been so painful for Dala to hold him and look into his eyes. But she will never hold him again. She would never do anything again. She was gone and he'd never told her how he'd felt.  
  
He brushed a tiny blond curl from the boy's forehead, and held him close against his cheek. How he would love to look after this child - her child - and in some small way redeem himself for all the pain he'd caused her. He had failed. He had failed the Jedi counsel. He had failed Anakin. But worst of all he had failed Amidala. She had lost everything - and he had lost her. But he knew he couldn't raise this child alone. There was always the danger that Anakin could learn of the child - learn that Obi-Wan had taken him. He needed to destroy all links with the Jedi and with the boy, and there was only one place in the galaxy where the child had a chance at freedom.  
  
* * * * *  
  
She lifted her head towards the sky in time to see the pulse flash between the enemy ship and the shuttle that had taken off without her. She didn't have time to wonder what had caused her sprawl out on the ground or why they took off so quickly without their most precious cargo.  
  
As it exploded, she tucked her head down again, against her daughter's, as the deafening sound filled the air.  
  
Then everything seemed to merge and spiral deeper and deeper into darkness until it swallowed her up completely.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Okay, well that's it. I would really appreciate it if you could review it for me.  
If you review one of my works I guarantee to review one of yours as soon as possible.  
Depending on feedback, I should be posting the next part within a week, so keep checking back! Thanks for reading. 


	3. FS - Part III

Well here it is - the final part in my little trilogy. I'm trying to make these stories fit in with what we learn in Epsiodes 4,5 and 6. I've really enjoyed writing them and this part is my favourite. Please review and tell me what you thought of the ending. Thanks for reading!  
[See Part I for information and disclaimers]  
  
* * * * *  
"Miss, miss, can you hear me? Miss, wake up… please…"  
  
A voice pierced the thick darkness and she followed it out of the pain, until she found herself blinking in the bright sunlight that was streaming in through a window.  
  
"Leia", she called, but her voice crackled as the pain shot through her small frame.  
  
"It's all right, just lie still. Leia - is that your daughter? It's all right, I've got her here."  
  
A woman adorned in what looked like a servant's uniform placed the tiny girl beside her mother, who stroked the baby's cheek with the tips of her fingers.  
  
"Please, where am I…" Amidala asked the woman. The last thing she remembered was collapsing outside and finding herself in a soft warm bed was the last thing she had expected.  
  
"You are in the palace, miss. I found you outside and the King insisted I bring you inside."  
  
"Bail?"  
  
The servant tilted her head in surprise at the young woman's familiarity, but thinking the young woman was still delusional, as she had been for the past two days, didn't think much of it.  
"Yes my dear. He's always had a soft spot for children, as he has none of his own. He asked me to get your name, and to ask where you were going when you fell."  
  
"My name is..." Amidala stopped herself short. The most important thing Obi-Wan had taught her was that trust is a powerful ally, and must not be carelessly invested in someone.  
"… Zahra." She finished. "And I was running from someone who wanted to take my daughter away from me. I don't have anywhere to go."  
  
"Well on behalf of the His Majesty I extend an invitation to join us here in the service of our planet's great leaders."  
  
"I…"   
She thought briefly of Obi-Wan. She wanted to take off from this planet immediately and find him. She was to meet him at Owen Lars' farm on Tatooine… Tatooine, her brain processed. The place where she had first layed eyes on the boy who was to become the cause of her greatest happiness and her greatest suffering…  
  
She closed her eyes gently, which forced the welling tears to spill down the sides of her face and onto the pillow.  
  
"Miss? You don't have to decide now."  
  
Obi-Wan would not want her gallivanting all over the galaxy just when the war was turning full scale. Knowing what he would want made the decision easier.  
  
"Thank you I am forever indebted to you for your kindness. Please relay my gratitude to the king. I hope to serve him honourably."  
  
"Very well, Zahra. I can promise that you and Leia will be safe here."  
  
Amidala smiled sadly and pulled the child against her, before opening her eyes and staring straight into the eyes of her rescuer.  
  
"Never make promises that you have no way of keeping."  
  
She turned her head to the innocent child beside her in order to avoid seeing the puzzled look that would invariably cross the woman's face, and drifted easily into the first real sleep she'd had in days.  
  
* * * * *  
  
In the two years that passed no one suspected the softly spoken servant girl and her fatherless child were anything more than what they appeared to be. Despite the close relationship she had developed with the King, she seemed unusually plain.  
  
'It's lucky', she thought to herself, 'that I spent enough time as Padme to know what a servant's role encompasses', but she still grimaced just a little when others ordered her about or treated her harshly.  
  
Each night she would collapse on the bed in her quarters and excuse the nurse that had been attending her daughter. Then she would proceed to tell the little one all about the people that she knew and about life on other worlds. Somehow though the conversation always centred around one person.  
  
"Leia", she whispered on one of these occasions, "remember how I told you about Obi-Wan? He is the greatest man in the entire galaxy and he saved us from the war. He is the only person I trust, my darling. He is the only person you can trust."   
  
She took a breath and gazed into the smiling face that seemed unaware of what she was being told. "At least remember his name. Obi-Wan Kenobi. And when you hear it, feel safe. When you need help, he will come to you. He has never failed me. And he will not fail you."  
  
She kissed the tiny forehead and a smile spread across the child's face. And that was what Amidala remembered when she needed to be strong throughout the terrifying days to come.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The moment she saw the shuttles land, she knew it was time. If she didn't act now they would ransack the palace until they found what they had come for.   
  
She whispered a brief goodbye to her tiny daughter. "I love you, my little Leia, though I know you will be safer if you do not remember that. I want you to be whatever you are called to be. But I have another wish for you. A simpler wish. That one day you will find your brother and when you do, something in your heart will tell you it is him, and that when you learn the truth - it doesn't hurt too much."  
  
She held the child tightly against her and walked as quickly as she dared through the vast rooms, until she saw Bail Organa walking toward the main entrance.  
  
"Bail, Bail! Please wait!"  
  
Amidala ran up to him with a crying Leia on her hip.   
  
"Please Bail, take her. Raise her as your own."  
  
"But Amidala…" He looked carefully around before using her true name.  
  
"It's just like I told you they have come for me and they must not get her. They don't know I have a child. Raise her as your own and she will be safe."  
  
She thrust the child into his arms, kissed his cheek and the top of her daughter's head.  
  
"You have known her all her life. In every way but one you are her father. There's no need for her to know anything about me. It's better that she doesn't know."  
  
Not wanting to cause the people who had protected her from harm the past two years, she walked calmly to the front of the palace and opened the heavy door.  
  
In her old authoritative voice she announced, "Do not hurt these people. They do not know who I am."  
  
Troops rushed forward and grabbed her, pushing her down the stairs and towards a waiting shuttle.  
  
"I wouldn't have thought you'd put your own safety before that of your people, Queen Amidala. Did you actually think you could hide from us? You are far too involved in this war to be left wandering the galaxy."   
  
The crowd that had gathered seemed shocked at the revelation that the timid servant girl was queen of a distant society. He turned to face them.   
  
"One day this world will pay for its crimes against the Empire. And when that day comes, remember the wanton Queen of Naboo who abandoned her people at their time of greatest need to save her own life - and failed to do so anyway."  
  
The crowd from the peaceful planet stood in disbelief at the harshness of the general's words. As Amidala she turned away she caught a glimpse of Leia in the arms of Bail in an upstairs window, and hoped that he could convince his people she'd only done it because she loved her children.  
  
The King peered carefully out of the window in time to see the Imperial troops push the pretty young woman into the ship. Tears began tumbling down his face. She was young - too young to face this kind of tragedy. He looked down into the child's face, the face he had watched grow from a baby to an independent toddler. He had often gone to their quarters to watch her play, and talk with the young woman about her situation. He couldn't believe it when a servant found her collapsed outside with one of the babies he'd held minutes after her birth. They'd left her behind. He had been her confidant - she'd often discussed the inevitability of them finding her and forcing her to return. But she'd never mentioned not taking Leia with her.  
  
He held her up to the window and whispered in her ear, "That is your mommy, Leia. You will never know what she gave up for you. One day, princess, when you're older and this war is over - though she doesn't think it's right - deep down she would want me to tell you."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Years later, in the seconds before the Empire destroyed his Alderaan, he would regret that moment. His final thought was of the dark-eyed woman and the bright-eyed child she had given him, and he knew he'd waited too long. Leia should have grown up knowing how much her mother loved her.  
  
  
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COPYRIGHT © November 2000 KATE DAVIS  
  
Well that's the final part. What did you think of the ending? I tried to make this fic fit in with what we discover when Leia is older. Did I succeed?  
If you review my fic I guarantee to review of yours as soon as possible. Thanks for reading! 


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